2015: A Strong Product Year

It’s been a stellar year for folks involved in product management, UX/design thinking, Lean, Agile, and shipping great software that users care enough to pay for. Here are just a few of the folks whose 2015 work I appreciate:

Finally, there was a flurry of product management courses and get-your-first-product-job classes. All great, and a chance to expand our ranks. Quoting Scott Sehlhorst though, with a nod to gray beards of both sexes, “a weekend at the dude ranch doesn’t make you a cowboy.” Newly trained product folks will still need some mentoring and not-for-the-faint-of-heart product experience to handle unruly organizations led by vision-of-the-hour executives.

Hoping that 2016 will bring more voices, more stages, more participation, and some strong differences of opinion.